News: Automation has had a negligible impact on jobs - World Bank

Automation has had a negligible impact on jobs - World Bank

The bank in its report said that while the technology is indeed eliminating many low-skilled jobs in advanced economies and developing economies, it is also creating opportunities for more creative and productive jobs.

Automation is taking up the jobs is turning out to be a myth; senior industry leaders also suggest that technology and automation are complimenting the manual jobs.

Chief Economist of the World Bank said, ‘The rise of automation has so far had a negligible impact on jobs at a global scale.’

“This fear that robots have eliminated jobs -- this fear is not supported by the evidence so far,” the World Bank’s Chief Economist Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg said in an interview.

The World Development Report 2019 is the latest in a series of efforts by academics, consultancies and governments to assess the impact of new technologies on employment. Past studies have often forecast automation will destroy more jobs than it creates.

The bank in its report said that while the technology is indeed eliminating many low-skilled jobs in advanced economies and developing economies, it is also creating opportunities for more creative and productive jobs.

"We know that robots are taking over thousands of routine tasks and will eliminate many low-skill jobs in advanced economies and developing countries. At the same time, technology is creating opportunities, paving the way for new and altered jobs, increasing productivity, and improving the delivery of public services," The World Bank Group president, Jim Yong Kim noted in the annual report.

The world bank is upbeat about the future and feels that demand for advanced cognitive skills, socio-behavioral skills, and skill combinations will increase. People with advanced problem solving ability, team works and reasoning capabilities will be hired more.

While industrial employment in Portugal, Singapore, and Spain has dropped by at least 10 per cent since 1991, in some developing economies, such as Vietnam, it has risen from 9 percent to 25 per cent in 2017. "These countries have upgraded their human capital, bringing highly skilled young workers into the labor market, who, together with new technology, upgrade manufacturing production. As a result, industrial employment in East Asia continues to rise, whereas in other developing economies it is stable," the report highlighted.